Minnesota Majority, tea party lose case on political apparel at polling places

[alp227]

Source: The Washington Independent

Minnesota Majority, Minnesota Voters Alliance and the North Star Tea Party Patriots lost a case in court on Friday when U.S. District Court Judge Joan Erickson dismissed the trio’s challenge to a state law that bans political apparel in the polling place. The groups had attempted a campaign to have their supporters bring “Please ID Me” buttons and tea party t-shirts into polling places, but elections officials said the items would not be allowed.

The groups requested a restraining order just days before the 2010 election to force elections officials to throw out the rules regarding political attire in polling places, but Erickson rejected that request.

The groups refiled the complaints following the election on the grounds that the rules that keep political buttons and t-shirts out of the polling place are unconstitutional.

The plaintiffs argued that elections officials violated their free speech rights by prohibiting the voter ID buttons and Tea Party t-shirts in the polling place. Erickson, however, said that the polling place is not a a public forum and that “the state has a well-established, legitimate interest in providing a safe, orderly, advocacy-free polling place.”

Read more: http://washingtonindependent.com/108844/minnesota-majority-tea-party-lose-case-on-political-apparel-at-polling-places

[MineralMan]

1. Good!

[jwirr]

2. As far as I understand it the only kind of clothing that would be disallowed

would be items that encourage one to vote a certain way - Vote Obama! or Vote McCain! That has been forbidden for many years. Can't even park a care with a bumper sticker within so many feet of the polling place.

[fascisthunter]

3. these weird, ant-democratic control freaks need a public stomping

annoying losers